Paranormal Activity 2

Admittedly not a fan of the first Paranormal Activity, or Paranormal Craptivity as I've taken to calling it. I also refer to it as the following: "Completely Normal Activity", "Paranormal Non-activity", "I Wish Something Would Fucking Happen Activity", and of course "Invisible Attic Chicken Activity". Don't know what terrified the rest of you about it, but invisible chickens who slam doors and drag people out of bed just don't scare me. I wanted to like it, I really, really wanted it to be the next Blair Witch, but it disappointed me to no end.

 Despite my negative attitude toward the first, I still wanted to see the sequel for some reason. I guess maybe I was hoping that with a little more budget, this one might turn out a little better. Either that, or I was just looking for more ammunition to use in my mockery of the saga of the invisible attic chicken. Probably the latter. So does Paranormal Activity 2 deliver the scares? Yes and no.

This one starts off just as slow as the first one did. Kristi and her husband Daniel return home from the hospital with a newborn, and Kristi's sister Katie, who you may remember as the crazy bitch from the first one. Well things are burning along at a snail's pace, and at the 40 minute mark I began to wonder if the invisible chicken would even be making an appearance in this movie, as at that point all I'd seen was a bunch of video footage of people swimming and taking care of a baby. Oh, I think a pan fell in the kitchen or something, but that was it. True to form though, the chicken finally does start to stir up shit, and when he gets going this time, he really gets after it.

Paranormal Activity 2 throws more jump scares at you than the original did, there aren't just doors slamming. Don't want to spoil anything really, but just take my word for it, a couple of times even I jumped a little. The baby being the center of the chicken's attention made this one a little more unsettling for me, which I was kinda thankful for and I'm not entirely sure how I should be feeling about myself after admitting that. We also get a little more of the back story for the sisters who take center stage in these movies. It's a little hokey in my opinion, but then again they also want me to believe that the invisible chicken is actually a "demon". Yeah, because if I was a demon, I would probably do shit like slam doors, make pans fall, and drag people out of bed.

Was it as bad as the first one? Actually no. Paranormal Activity 2 managed to actually do a little more for me than just bore me to sleep. It takes a while to get going, but there's enough here to do some genuine creeping out, especially if you're bothered by the fact that most of the activity centers around a baby (like this guy). I hesitate to use the word "action" as even when the shit does hit the fan, there's not a whole lot going on really, but at least more happens here than just some standing and then sitting beside the bed. Will I ever watch it again? Probably not, I've only seen the original once too, but at least this time I don't feel like I completely wasted 90 minutes of my life. Overall, I guess if you liked the first one, you'll probably really like this one. And if you didn't like the first one, I'd recommend at least giving Paranormal Activity 2 a rent.